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Friday, 24 August 2012

Sahin Deal Falls Through| Arsenal In For Jesus Of Sevilla

The photo-shopped picture of Sahin in Arsenal gear that raised the hopes of many

Football season is back and boy am I glad it is? Offers a couple more options of things to do on otherwise humdrum evenings and of course provides fodder for blog pages other than transfer speculations.

You would think that the season having gotten underway, there will be better direction on the shape of the squad and things to come. It does seem we'll have to wait until after the transfer window closes on August 31st to concentrate solely on the football part of things and less on who has gone where and who hasn't made an anticipated move.

It would seem as it presently stands that the call made by those "in the know" about Nuri Sahin's loan move to Arsenal was made in a hurry. Going by the rumours yesterday evening, it looks like that deal has fallen through and Sahin will be headed for Liverpool after all. Not that I'll blame the ITKs for leading us on as many news media who should know had also rushed to the same conclusion and reported that Sahin's loan move from Madrid to Arsenal had been concluded and was only awaiting confirmation by the club.

I felt sorry for one particular ITK last night as he twitted an apology to his nearly forty thousand followers about misleading us after he had reported a couple of days back that the deal had been finalized and Sahin was expected to report to the London Colney training ground at a particular time last Monday.

The ITKs depend on insider information for the news they provide which in turn enables them amass the followership they have on Twitter. It's egg on the face of an ITK if he constantly makes bad calls like may have been made in this case. This particular one does seem like the ITK was just quick to the draw when you consider the category of news media who also made the same call so hopefully the ITK's rep will remain intact as he has provided information in the past that checked out.

Arsenal and Liverpool had gone toe-to-toe in the race for the Turk international's signature over the past week and it had seemed that Arsenal had the edge with the promise of Champions league football and reports that the player favoured a move to Arsenal after Wenger had personally called him on the phone to give him assurances on why Arsenal will be a better move than Liverpool.

There are now conflicting reports on why exactly the deal fell through. Some reports say Arsene Wenger was not 100% convinced on his suitability for the midfield role he had in mind for Sahin while others suggest that Wenger wanted a permanent deal as opposed to a loan move but that the player himself will rather go for a loan deal with the hope that he will find more regular football back at Madrid at the end of the loan deal. Others say that Liverpool offered to pay a larger proportion of his wages than Arsenal did as well as Brendan Rodgers' personal assurance of first team football.

Whatever the reason, it does seem that the Sahin to Arsenal loan deal is dead in the water but the need for a defensive minded midfielder in the squad will ensure that more midfielders will be linked and speculated on in the remaining seven days of the transfer window.

Jesus Navas of Sevilla is the next big name to be linked with a move in our direction. Some suggest this could mean that contract rebel, Walcott is on his way after yet failing to agree on a contract extension deal at the Emirates. Though Chelsea and Liverpool are rumoured to be closely monitoring Walcott's contract situation, there is nothing to suggest that Walcott will not be signing an extension though recent experience with Song show that things can change rather quickly.

Jesus is a Spain international with 21 caps under his belt. He's a right winger of some repute and is known for his quick feet and ability to run at defenders. He will provide much needed competition for Walcott if he arrives and finds Theo there so it's easy to see why people may read his arrival (if it happens) to mean the end of the road for Theo at the Emirates.

Reports suggest that Jesus has a £35m buy-out clause in his contract but that Sevilla are willing to listen to a bid of about half that price which I consider a bargain for the 26 year old.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I sure am glad football season is back. Last nights first El Classico was a good watch. No matter what I think of those Catalan marauders , I can't fault their football. They strutted their stuff in the usual entertaining fashion in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup with Xavi, Iniesta and Messi continuing where they left off last season.

Valdez's unnecessary attempt to dribble Di Maria went awry and he ended up gifting Madrid a goal to end the tie 3-2 in favour of Barcelona. It was reminiscent of Fabian Barthez's antics at United.

Alex Song did not so much as feature in the substitutes list and watching that game made me wonder what exactly Barcelona need him for as it is not clear what exactly he can offer to the team as it is. Time shall surely tell.

It's Friday, Gunners and a weekend of football to look forward to. Let's hope Stoke provides us the whole three points on Sunday.